When you love the jumper you’re looking at…

You want to recreate, right? If you are a knitter like me, you would understand the urge to make one just for the sake of it. But who would have time for it unless you’re doing it as a sort of full-time job? This has been my excuse not to do it until now.

Last Saturday, my husband and I watched a movie — The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I guess you all know about the movie or have heard of it. No? It was quite “a talk of the town” when it came out — a best seller, Lily James and all. It has the requirements, I think. Anyway, I had read the book a long while before the movie and I loved the book. So saved was this movie in “My List” on Netflix when it came out. Then, I forgot about it until the movie was on one of the TV channels last Saturday. (If you want to know about the movie, this is a short and cute review in the Harvard Crimson. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/5/31/guernsey-literary-review/ )

In the middle of the movie, I had to shout “stop” so many times that the poor husband moved on to another device and left me alone with the movie.

Why? Because of these!

And these! (I think the cardigan in the right photo below is crocheted.)

I fast-forwarded the movie to see who is the costume designer. I simply had to. Her name is Charlotte Walter. She has done much noticeable work in the movie industry including the multi-award winning “Belfast”.

Below is the one-liner of The Harvard Crimson about her work. I think it is very well put.

Costume designer Charlotte Walter is to thank for this feeling with her authentic designs. James in particular sports a wide array of fashionable and enviable numbers, which change over the course of the film to reflect her character development.

Charlotte is my best friend in my head now. Don’t worry. I won’t stalk her.

The last one before I sod off, I want to show you an old jumper in the movie. It is a typical guernsey (gansey) jumper, don’t you think? (I need to take out Di Gilpin’s book to check). By the way, where on earth did Charlotte find this well-worn jumper?

There are many more gorgeous jumpers, vests and cardigans in the movie. Now I have a burning desire to recreate these jumpers. I cannot help myself. Just thinking about them makes me drool. I wonder how, though. Can I find enough time to do this with everything going on right now? (It’s a bit of a mess, I confess). And I’m thinking…How about not having a deadline for this?! I will do however long it might take. That’s my plan for now. Let’s find yarns. Woo-hoo!

On a side note: if you are interested in finding more about Guernsey or Gansey jumpers, check out Di Gilpin - a Scottish designer https://digilpin.com/collections/gansey I learned about gansey through her book — The Gansey Knitting Sourcebook. There are many sources you can find on the internet too. I found the history is very interesting. Oh, I should not go off a tangent here. This is for another time… definitely for another time.